On 26-27 June, the LeTSGEPs Consortium met in beautiful Sicily, hosted by our Partner University of Messina, to hold the eight partners’ meeting. We had a fantastic time during our visit to Messina! It was a new experience for most of us, and we enjoyed the warm and welcoming atmosphere of the place. The delicious food, wine, and enjoyable ambiance played a significant role in strengthening our friendships and having a great working time together too!
Beyond a great time, it wasn’t just a leisure trip; we also worked diligently on the LeTSGEPs project. How to plan the last six months of the project was the main focus of the meeting. It allowed us to reflect on our accomplishments thus far, the activities yet to be implemented by the end of the project, the last deliverables, the final conference, and most importantly, how we plan to support the outcomes of LeTSGEPs even after its conclusion.
The meeting began with a warm welcome from the UNIME team; then, the UNIMORE team presented the state of play of the project, the deliverables due by the end of LeTSGEPs, and the organizational details of the Final Conference that will take place on the 23rd of November 2023 in Brussels (updated agenda, panels, posters).
Then a GEPs implementation session, chaired by our Partner, the University of Tirana, followed. All our implementing partners presented the state of the art of the GEPs implementation at their RPOs, revealing very satisfactory achievements of which the Consortium is very proud. Once again, this exercise allowed us to exchange experiences, gather ideas, and consolidate a unified approach to implementing GEPs.
We then delved into the project’s milestones, focusing on monitoring and implementation tools like the partners’ feedback on the dashboard that we used to track the implementation process.
The Unimore Team presented the Handbook state of play on the second day. The Handbook, managed by the Unimore Team with the contributions from all the partners, to be officially released during the Final Conference, represents the legacy of LeTSGEPs to other colleagues that will commit to GEPs implemented with Gender Budgeting. We are all delighted with the tremendous collaborative atmosphere that supported the partners’ contribution in describing the lessons learned in their experience that hopefully will contribute to other RPOs’ experiences.
We also discussed in detail the Brochure expected to be released by the final conference and the dissemination activities that partners plan to implement after Final Conference at the local level.
Another session on GEPs’ sustainability and suggestions for future collaborations and the steering committee paved the way for the final Scientific and Advisory Board that took place by the end of the second day. The great appreciation for the Handbook and the main achievements gained by LeTSGEPs partners was undoubtedly a great reason to be very satisfied and optimistic about the future after the project’s conclusion.
But our wonderful time in Messina was still ongoing!
The meeting closed with a memorable dinner at a restaurant with a suggestive and unforgettable view of the strictness of Messina. The menu based on fish and typical Sicilian plates will be hard to forget for all of us!
It was a perfect way to conclude such a successful, intense, and enjoyable meeting. Still, for some of us, the Messina experience was not over yet, since the day after the partners’ meeting closure, the LeTSGEPs Summer School took place, as we have reported here.